Engineering Students Get Valuable Experience Through Summer Internships at Faurecia

Four mechanical engineering students from Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus (IUPUC) are getting hands-on experience this summer through internships at Faurecia, one of the largest international automotive parts manufacturers in the world.

They are the first in the Purdue University Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering (BSME) program at IUPUC to complete internships at Faurecia’s Columbus Tech Center.

Other students in the program, which began in 2011, have completed internships at Cummins, Toyota, and other advanced manufacturing companies in the region.

“Although not currently required, engineering students are encouraged to pursue local and regional internships during their junior and senior years. Some even decide to begin internships as early as their freshman years in the program,” said Dr. Dan Fant, associate professor and head of the Division of Mechanical Engineering at IUPUC.

Faurecia hired all IUPUC students who applied for full-time internships.

“We are pleased to partner with IUPUC and to have their mechanical engineering students on board as interns at Faurecia this summer,” said Tracie Kimmett, talent acquisition manager for North American operations for Faurecia’s Emissions Control Technologies Division. “We appreciate the energy, enthusiasm, and new perspectives these students have brought to their work teams,” she added.

The students and their hometowns are:

Richard Weafer (Columbus)

Sloan Ball (Hope)

Jeremy Bolduc (Edinburgh)

Garrhett Allen (Bloomfield)

Bolduc is working in Faurecia’s Program Development Leader (PDL) Group, which develops emissions control systems.

“I’ve gained knowledge about the engineering of exhaust systems and how to investigate failed systems. In addition, I’m learning to read component design prints and understand the parts, shipping, and receiving end of the business. Faurecia is an amazing organization and I’m excited to work here. This experience is what I needed to confirm that mechanical engineering is the right career for me,” Bolduc said.

Fant says real-world perspectives gained during an internship reinforce theories and concepts learned in the classroom. “Student interns learn how to work in technical groups, cultivate good communication and collaboration skills, analyze experimental and computational data, write and interpret technical reports, present and explain data graphically, and implement design work and engineering analyses,” he noted.

Internship positions help ease student debt, often lead to part-time employment during the academic year, and can yield opportunities for full-time employment after graduation.

Fant expects the number of IUPUC engineering students placed in internships will grow as local and regional employers continue to seek ways of increasing the number of well-qualified employees from which to recruit.

IUPUC’s first class of mechanical engineering students is expected to graduate in May of 2014. Currently, there are 55 students in the program.